SCGOP: The Party That Eats It's Own....

Black Label and Loin of Sanford Makes Good Eatin ' .......

Okay, time to break my silence a bit here. Two months after censuring Governor Sanford for his poor choice of not notifying anyone that he was leaving the country to see his Argentinian girlfriend, the Executive Committee of the SCGOP decided today to ask the Governor to resign - a plan already attempted by the Republican House caucus, The House Speaker, and perhaps Sanford's worst enemy in the Senate ......

Nothing meriting impeachment has been brought forth since the original censure - what, a few plane flights? Big freakin' deal.. Why not check his house in Sullivan's Island, check for state-owned pencils, and nail him for that too? That hasn't stopped politicians with an axe to grind, and some embarrassed party reps. on an anonymous conference call. Judging by the votes tallies, our Executive Committee members understand what merit impeachment slightly better than the House - but only slightly.

What does merit impeachment? Leaving the country for five days, when the House and Senate are done with business? No. It's poor judgement, it merits censure, but not resignation or impeachment. The conduct has to be malicious, with the intent being to wrecklessly cause harm to the office. He wrongly tried to hide where he was going to catch some tail. Awful idea, but malicious and wreckless? Nope....

I can tell you one rule that has been broken here, unofficial though it may be - Reagan's 11th Commandment. Most of you know - or at least heard of it - but for those of you who haven't, it is simple..... Thou Shalt Not Speak Badly of Another Republican. That rule appears to have become completely lost on our party this Summer. It's political cannibalism, and it is going to kill our party. If impeachment hearings take place in January, it will fracture our party worse than it already is, and it wouldn't surprise me to see a Democrat as Governor next November....

Clearly, some in the party think that the best way to avoid that is to pressure Sanford to resign, and if not, then impeach him ASAP... The bloodlust to oust him without even a finished decision from the State Ethics Committee reminds me of the McCarthy hearings. You know what kind of governments call votes of 'No Confidence'? Communists usually. Maybe Japan every once in a while....We don't like you, so we will use whatever reason we can to make you step down.

I don't buy the theory that we need to get Sanford out to get the Legislature back to working positively. The fact is that our state is set up to make the Governor - even a popular one - weak and powerless. EVERYTHING vetoed is overruled. And replacing the leader worked so well with Andrew Johnson, John Tyler, and Gerald Ford to name a few. Andre Bauer will be no worse - and likely no better either. Just a different head of a branch of state government that the other branch doesn't listen to.....

Honestly, I almost resigned my job as Vice-Chair of the 6th Congressional District over today's vote, and a few other things. If they want my gig - traveling to 15 different counties for free - they can have it. I have plenty of friends in the GOP. I don't need a title to feel needed.... But, I'll keep it for now, and try to fix my party from the inside. Who knows if I can, the forces that started it are out of my control, but the answer to my often asked question - Who Drives the Bus? - is WE drive the bus. Mark Sanford is not the cause of all our problems..... The problem is us.

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